Audition: "Lincoln Mercury" @ TLC/Booth Casting. Ya know I love to audition @ this office. I’ve booked here twice before and they were both Joe Pytka directed spots. That is always encouraging. Last year I lost a week of my vacation for a last minute booking and I am more than willing to do it again.

The audition went well, I think I understood how it is going to be shot and acted accordingly. Hopefully I didn’t “over think it” though.

You ever see anyone at an audition for a job that you ended up booking and you see that person again and you don’t want to say that you book it? Well, I ran into my friend Denver Dowridge at the “Lincoln-Mercury” audition today. We were also at the “Monk” audition together. Since we are often mistaken for each other I assumed we were reading for the same part. Well, I found out today that we BOTH booked roles in the episode! Different roles, different days. That really put a smile on both of our faces.

On a completely different topic; this doesn’t put a smile on my face. It’s official; I think “SAG at AFTRA rates” sucks. Matter of fact, I think AFTRA sucks. Correct me if I’m wrong, but they seem to be working against getting us actors the best rates. I also reserve the right to change my mind about this at anytime. I don’t know, having two guilds representing the same group of actors doesn’t serve us all that well and as a result we get “SAG at AFTRA rates”. It is horrible.

Today I realized how important a decision I made years ago was. Very early on in my journey I decided to go after what I wanted; I mean really go after it. By that I meant top productions and the people involved. I figured, “why not?” I might actually get some roles.

When I first moved to Los Angeles my focus was television and commercials. Not just any television shows; but what I call the “blue-chip” shows: “ER”, “CSI”, “Friends”, Everybody Loves Raymond”, Judging Amy”, “NYPD Blue”, “Frasier”, etc. The shows they had been around or were going to be around in syndication for years to come. As an actor trying to make a living, residual income is of vital importance.

Commercially, I went after the busiest casting directors who cast for the top level directors. In 2003 I consciously added film to my target list. Not just any category of film; I went after the big studio films. None of this means that I turned down or didn’t pursue other stuff; of course I did. I’ve worked on all kinds of projects, for pay and no pay, with dialogue and no dialogue, names and no names. I just knew where I wanted my priorities to be.

The reason is because I wanted to be able to make a living and work with the best. As a result I’ve been fortunate to work some of the premiere talent in the industry: Joe Pytka, Andy Ackerman, James Burrows, David Kohan, Max Mutchnick, Terry George, Kevin Bright, Bonnie Hunt, Arlene Sanford and of course Debra Zane, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg and many, many others.

What am I getting at? Even I’m confused at this point. The bottom line is that I am really; really glad that I was very specific in the type projects I worked on in the beginning. Why do I say that? Because the “SAG at AFTRA” terms contract that UPN works under is a terrible thing for actors. Did I say it’s a terrible thing for actors? In short, it sucks. Almost everything I’ve worked on in TV has been on ABC, CBS NBC or Fox and some cable. The big network residual pay scale is much, much, much better than UPN’s “SAG at AFTRA” terms garbage. Hopefully, I’m wrong, but I assume that the new CW Network will be working under the same crappy contract.

The difference is this. If the majority of the work I have booked over the years would have been on UPN I would definitely still be putting theft tags on ladies underwear at Old Navy/Beverly Connection @ 4am or better yet, still waiting tables at The Hollywood Standard asking hotties if “fries comes with that shake”. There is THAT much of a difference in the residuals.

Last Fall I did a guest star on UPN’s “Love, Inc.”. I had a great time working on the show and was thrilled to get the guest starring credit. It originally aired in December and aired again in the same time slot in March. Here’s the really depressing part: My residual payment for the first re-run was roughly 10% of my original rate. I found it hard to believe that AFTRA sold us out and undercut SAG that bad. I could be wrong still because everytime I call SAG I get a different answer. Until I find out otherwise I am angry about this. If this would have been on NBC, ABC, CBS or Fox I would have gotten my full fee for a re-run in that time slot.

Don’t get me wrong I understand that UPN is not a huge network like the big four, but 10% on a first re-airing is just wrong. So where do I go from here? First, I leave town and get a nice break from it all. Then I return with a vengeance and focus on what I’ve been focusing on for years. It has served me well in the past and it should continue; I just didn’t know how instrumental that decision was when I made it. I’ll still audition for AFTRA shows if they come up, but I won’t be pursuing them like I’ll pursue full SAG productions.

I didn’t think anything could be worse than the DVD pay rate, but “SAG at AFTRA Terms” is much worse in my opinion. Here is an example of DVD payment situation I saw on a website sometime ago.

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Thank you SOOO much for your recent email. I have tried till I'm blue
in the face to explain what happened to me on the movie Seabiscuit,
Which you referenced in your email? [Note: we pointed out that the
Writer and director of Seabiscuit each made $650,000 from DVD sales.]

Please feel free to share this information in ANY of your materials as it
will further breakdown HOW LITTLE will show up in the actors'
pockets and how MILLIONS of dollars will be lost in the future.

A few key points on Seabiscuit and another movie I worked on,
Catch Me If You Can.

Seabiscuit - pay rate for me: 1 day, Scale plus 10%. "Take it or
leave it." Sound familiar? I took it. THINKING, great book, big
movie, big budget, RESIDUALS - WRONG!!!!

The movie grossed over 200 million at the box office, then went on
to become the #20 Top Selling DVD of ALL TIME at 6.6 MILLION
UNITS. But I had to split the 12 CENTS that actors got for each of
those 6.6 MILLION UNITS with 90 other speaking roles!

Net pay for me for one day: $538.00
Residuals: $458.00 - And that's for EVERYTHING - DVD, Cable, Pay TV.

Films of this size are skipping cable and syndication and cutting right to
cheap, mass-produced DVD's which offer PURE PROFIT.

Now I will use Catch Me If You Can as my other example:

2 days at $800 (my quote at the time - you'll see why fighting for your quote
is worth the risk of losing the job.) [Note: this is also a good example of
why the proposed 3% increase in minimums is meaningless.]

My residuals for Catch Me If You Can: $5,200. Almost 3 times my initial
salary. Same 200 Million at the box office - BUT - not anywhere near the
DVD sales of Seabiscuit. BUT - A LOT of HBO, Cable and Pay-Per-View.

The DVD issue is worth sending these guys back to the table. Any penny
above what we have now is worth MILLIONS in the long run. The STARS have to come out on this since they have even more to lose than we do. They came out late in the Commercial Strike - I say - bring them out now.

I will send your email to all my friends with that thought in mind that
ANYTHING we get above NOTHING now is worth the good fight. WE MUST NOT be
fed this b.s. from up top. They misjudged us when they tried to sell us on the merger and on the dues raise. I think they're doing that here, too.

Yours in Brotherhood,

[Name deleted at writer's request.]

Please vote NO.

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